Arizona Cardinals' Tyrann Mathieu contemplated suicide while in jail

Tyrann Mathieu's road to the NFL and the Arizona Cardinals was not always a smooth one.

And, according to Mathieu himself, it was one that at one point seemed like it could take a tragic detour.

Mathieu, when speaking to Fox Sports Arizona's Craig Morgan, said he contemplated taking his own life in 2012 while in jail. Mathieu was there because, following his dismissal from the LSU football team for failing multiple drug tests, police found marijuana during a search of his apartment.

"I'm sitting in that jail cell thinking, 'I don't know if I want to go back out there and face the music,' " he said. "I didn't know how I was going to commit suicide in the cell, but that was the direction my life was heading."

Mathieu told Morgan that it was his cellmates who encouraged him to forget those thoughts, saying he was a good football player and shouldn't be going down that road.

Because of the experience, Mathieu said he was able to get his life back together and focus on football. And with things seemingly heading in the right direction, Mathieu said he wants to start a foundation to help others who might be feeling the same way he once did.

It would be called "Second Chance," and the idea would be to give others the same opportunity to turn their lives around that he received.

"People go through a lot of things. They can be every-day personal things, not just suicide," he said. "I just want to reach out and use this platform for something positive and be an inspiration to people who want to see me as an inspiration."

It's nice to see Mathieu try and turn what could have been a terrible tragedy into something positive. He's not hiding from his past; no, instead he's embracing his history and hoping that others can learn from it.